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A lot of times, it’s just hard to judge exactly how far away you are from certain objects. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could use your iPhone’s camera to measure the distance between your iPhone and the object you are pointing the camera at? A new application has surfaced in Cydia dubbed EasyMeasure by iOS developer cujo30227 that can use mathematical algorithms to accurately measure the distance between your iPhone’s camera lens and the object you are pointing it at. EasyMeasure also works with the iPad and iPod touch.

EasyMeasure doesn’t use the stock Camera application; instead, it will install a new application, which has an icon on your home screen. From this application, you can calibrate your lens and change a myriad of settings to get your measurements accurately by the inch. The application can also measure in other units such as meters and feet. This informative screenshot from the application shows you how the application works:

To calibrate your device, you will need to put the device on a flat horizontal surface and a flat vertical surface. Once you do this, you’re ready to begin using the application. You will need to adjust your lens height so the application knows how to judge the object you are pointing the camera at.

If you find the distance indicators hard to read, tapping on the T button (stands for text) will place nice gray rectangles behind the text so you can read them much easier. As shown in the original image, you can see the white text indicators that show you how far away you are from the object and the lines that visually indicate the mathematical algorithms adding up to the output. These lines change dynamically with your movement and they adjust in real-time.

While using your camera to judge the distance between you and another object could come off as moot in terms of practicality, just try and reminisce on times when you wanted to know how far away you were from something but you couldn’t get to it with a tape measure, such as being stuck in the back seat of a moving car. The accuracy is pretty good for the average nearby object. The application is pretty unique and shows us the potential of Apple's mobile cameras. Too bad they will probably never add something like this to the iPhone natively.

i had tried this app, it doesnt work that well by any means. Standing 1 foot from door knob tells me its 3ft away, measuring object down the stairs is 10ft when its more like 60, tried the different calibration settings such as height and stuff to no avail. Numbers I gave are just example, only so much of it can be due to user error, but it happened even as i was adjusting my height and stuff

i had tried this app, it doesnt work that well by any means. Standing 1 foot from door knob tells me its 3ft away, measuring object down the stairs is 10ft when its more like 60, tried the different calibration settings such as height and stuff to no avail. Numbers I gave are just example, only so much of it can be due to user error, but it happened even as i was adjusting my height and stuff

It doesn't appear to state this in the app but it does not work when measuring something that is not on the same plane as you are. Such as when you measure something down the stairs, the phone is not at the same angle as it would be if it were on the same floor as you. That means you have to angle the phone 'down' more and it thinks the object is closer than it really is. And instead of measuring the door knob, try measuring to the bottom of the door.